LCG's are much easier to collect that is for sure. In about a year I went from starting AGoT to owning every single card for the game. No other CCG other than the short lived Ophidian 2350 can I ever have said that about.

I joined yesterday when I found LotR LCG, I'm not a huge fan of LotR but the reason I'm buying it it's because... lol... I DON'T BUY BOOSTER PACKS!! I might even get a rare card, but to get to it I would've needed to spend a LOT of money I mean A LOT!! And I needed to continue buying boosters to be a real T1 player... ... and that sucks a little =x now with LCG what matters is skill and not money...

Besides, I will be able to play singleplayer with LotR when I don't have a friend around, and that gives more value to the package, you can test your deck before playing with a friend.

This concept is so awesome it's hard to believe =D I stopped playing my card games because of the money, now I can have fun all the time only wasting 15€ a month instead of 30€+ with random cards....

 Distributed like DBGs, but they play like CCGs, nothing but awesomeness in my book.

 The only problem with LCGs is that some of my favorite games aren't. :)

I completely agree and if you want to know why you can read about my thoughts here.

I love the new LCG format. I stopped playing CCGs not because I didn't enjoy them a lot, but because they were such a big investment to truly have a pool of good cards to play with. Sure opening packs is sometimes fun and exciting (its really like gambling), but most of the time you're dissappoinited- you just tossed out a bunch of money, and possibly not even gotten 1 card you wanted to use. It is easier with friends to play with, but with a smaller group of friends it can be hard, and lets face it, some cards just aren't very good and nobody wants. There are also times when several people want to play the same color.

LCGs have gotten me back into deckbuilding card games. I now know up front how much I have to spend to build a deck, and can budget accordingly. I know Magic will never change because they have pretty much a stranglehold on the top of the market, but I would hope this is how new generation CCGs go. (I also doubt Japanese card games will pick up this format.)

I guess the only drawback is I doubt you will see any dealer with singles for sale for LCGs. Oh yes and drafting is totally different, but I've never really been a draft player anyway. I just like to build decks and have fun.

Kitsune Rei said:

Well, Thorondor, the organizer for the German tournaments at Stahleck has been selling single cards: www.eaglecard.org

I'm not sure if he will continue to do so, now that every AP will have three cards.

I was done with CCG´s then found LCG´s and I just love to have all necessary cards in one booster!

In my opinion its truth that LCG's have advantage with " You know what you get " effect, but same thing can be also bad side becouse like someone mention before its pleasure opening boosters in CCG's when you dont know what is actualy inside.

But im not sure about money problem in CCG's over LCG's. I noticed that actualy many my friends that playing Warhammer Invasion buying same expansions multiple times, even core sets they geting 2 or 3 times to get more copys of cards they need for deck. If add to this how fast coming new addons its also very expensive .  So if someone want be serious pro player in  LCG's tournaments he also need spend a lot of money, maybe in some situations even more than CCG player becouse that one can have luck with rare good cards in boosters.

cheers

 Well compare the cost of buying a championship deck for M:tG in single cards and then look at how much you can buy in any of the LCG's. Or look at the cost to buy a championship M:tG deck in singles, and then a LCG deck by buying the entire packaged product. And then remember that with M:tG you get one and only one deck. With the LCG game of your choice you will almost certainly be able to put together multiple decks, and many of them will probably also be tournament worthy.

Any game that you want to keep up with the new hotness is going to require an investment... but there is just no comparing the outlay of cash to play the two games at even a moderately competitive level.

Amen to that. CCGs are exhausting financially and heavy on your free time. I quit magic because of the time thing, it's hard to keep up with this kind of hobby while having a regular job and other duties. That's while I really think the LCG is an awesome format - it really appeals to me because it captures a lot of magic from ccgs while being cheaper both on your wallet and time.  

Still - Mtg is a very mature game and I miss that feeling of having boxes of cards to choose from and build fun decks. The sheer volume of possibilites made the game a superb experience. It's much more fun building your own decks than just grabbing a list off the internet. Sure you can't really compete on the top level like that, but if you have a group of friends who aren't too obsessed with winning you can have lots of fun. We used to build a lot of different decks, often using a cards from the cheaper range and had a great time coming up with combinations that beat the crap of our opponents. 

 You can still do that with A Game of Thrones. There is a bit over a thousand cards at this point to make your deck from.

While I too will be missing the feeling of opening a booster box and getting that rare Nazgul or Bilbo card I got with ICE's Middle Earth CCG (a beautiful game I still love to play), I must say the knwoledge of owning every card with each new chapter pack excites me more. Just knowing having all the cards available to construct decks without overpaying... It's just ideal for a co-op game like this

I'm a board gamer originally, and I wouldn't touch a CCG with a ten foot pole, because of the expense involved. When I heard about the LCG format, I decided to give AGoT a try, and boy, what a blast I had over the last few months. I love that game to death. And it goes on: I just ordered the LotR Core Set. So, in my book, LCG is the best thing since sliced bread.